131–140 of 538 posts
Depends on what you are working on, but don’t dismiss buying a cheap chromebook with a decent screen and using a cloud instance. A lot of IDE plugins make it an even better experience. Just make sure you are near the data centre and it’ll be better then you think.
Imagine paying a rental on your development environment.
ThinkPad.
ThinkPad's are incredibly boring, and great because they are incredibly boring. They aren't trying to be exciting in their design, and because of that can include things like ports(!) and sufficient cooling(!). We bought 10 at work, and we haven't had a significant problem with any of them over the last two years.
I absolutely love my Framework laptop for dev. I feel the software support is also quite good, at least for Fedora which is explicitly supported. I got the DIY edition and put everything together, including installing Fedora, in under 1 hour. And I'm a really slow guy, haven't build a computer in 10 years - its too easy with framework. This laptop is really build to be repairable and modular and it does not suck at a…
Since you know the product (frame.work) well: how does one get the specifications page?! Last time I checked, they (notebookcheck.net) said it used a glossy display instead of matte; I cannot find a specifications table in the frame.work website and the closest thing I got is in the "Marketplace Parts" section, e.g. at https://frame.work/products/display-kit - where the non-trivial, simply critical detail of glossy v…
However turning a matte display into a glossy one isn't possible.
FYI, https://community.frame.work/t/matte-screen-please/577/114.
Switch to Linux. Using MacOS locks you into proprietary hardware. By focusing on the software rather than the hardware, you can switch hardware manufactures as they oscillate in quality. Going with something like NixOS would make this even easier as your operating system setup could easily be migrated to another machine when the time comes.
In the past, Linux compatibility was not great because the desktop userbase was considerably smaller. Today, compatiblity is not great because hardware got considerably more complex.
It's possible that some hardware is very compatible. That's great! But one has to be very careful. For example the alleged Dell XPS compatibility with Linux is a half-scam (I've worked on such laptop), or brands like Lenovo, which used to be very compatible in the past, now are not necessarily so (e.g. Ryzen 6000 laptops are a dumpster fire on Linux).
Apple’s customer support is truly terrible in countries where they don’t have an official presence. My wireless Magic Keyboard with Numpad and Touch ID just stopped working one day. I took it to the Apple Premium Reseller store where it was purchased for service, and it took them FOUR AND A HALF MONTHS to replace it. I should have walked out of that store with a new one in my hands, because it’s impossible to repair.…
I have also given up on Apple, but mostly because I can't see the value in it anymore, otherwise my experience with them has been satisfactory (Intel CPU models).
For the past few years I used a Microsoft Surface Pro because it seemed to have good build quality and high screen resolution, but despite this I have had to replace it as part of a recall due to a graphics hardware issue, so it was not without its flaws. On a side note, I found the Windows OS to be OK for non-dev work, but would always "work" on the Linux subsystem... so even though Windows supports it quite well, I would just suggest 100% Linux.
For 2022 I decided to buy a "gaming" laptop and switch to 100% Linux. The build quality is a little lower than Apple, and the screen resolution is not as good as Apple or Surface Pro, but it is still good, and when using my external monitor there is no difference.
The benefits are clear, however, for less than 50% of the cost I am getting superior performance, discrete GPU, excellent cooling, and NO LOCK-IN. There is also the added benefit of being able to play the occasional video game with great performance.
So far I don't regret it.
I absolutely love my Framework laptop for dev. I feel the software support is also quite good, at least for Fedora which is explicitly supported. I got the DIY edition and put everything together, including installing Fedora, in under 1 hour. And I'm a really slow guy, haven't build a computer in 10 years - its too easy with framework. This laptop is really build to be repairable and modular and it does not suck at a…
The three aspects to consider when buying a laptop: Weight, Performance and Price. Laptops that are cheaper and lighter weighted usually have a lower performance. Laptops that have higher performance and lower price usually are heavy weighted. Laptops that have higher performance and lighter weight are usually pricey. You have to sacrifice one of the three. I’d personally go for the Dell Precision 5520. Cheap, high p…
No, keyboard quality, reliability, (calendar) longevity, robustness and repairability are more important considerations than any of those. Dell Precision can be a good choice, true.
... the hinge on the lenovo legion 7 that my daughter's using for university broke after 2 years. Repair shop told me don't close it by pulling on just one corner, either pull from the midlle or both corners.
As a macbook owner, it didn't occur to me that she should go easy on the hinges ;)